Programs by Subject

Showing Psychology

13 May 2010

Lewis Carroll believed 'we read to know that we are not alone'. Thomas Carlyle wrote that the effect of a book 'excites the reader to self activity'. Why we read fiction is a question that has had writers, academics, critics and philosophers debating for centuries.

This [series episode segment] has

3 Feb 2010

What is a neuronovel? American literary critic Marco Roth says writers are abandoning the mind in favour of the brain -- moving from a psychological investigation of character to bio-medical models of behaviour. But if our actions are explained by the chemical balance, or imbalance, in our heads, then where does that leave love?

4 Jul 2008

When it comes to literature, are we what we read? Well, if you read novels, it seems that the answer is 'Yes'. Cognitive scientists at the University of Toronto in Canada claim to have found that reading fiction affects our psychology, in effect re-wiring our brains as we process the emotional ebb and flow of character and plot.

This [series episode segment] has and transcript

25 May 2007

From the selfish gene to the literary gene, can evolutionary theory explain great literary works, our love of storytelling and the behaviour of characters in novels? In an article for the New Scientist, Jonathan Gottschall argued that the present state of literary criticism is outdated, and he has applied what he terms 'Darwinian literary theory' to works like Homer's Iliad, and to Jane Austen's novels. Today on the Book Show we explore whether there is a relationship between natural selection and our penchant for storytelling.